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Juli Briskman Fired: Woman Who Flipped Off Trump’s Motorcade Faces Harsh Workplace Double Standards

By Bradley Ryder
Published on: 23:09 PST, Nov 5, 2017

It was the middle finger seen from all around the world, but the political protest picture ultimately resulted in Juli Briskman being terminated. According to a new report, the female bicyclist who became the de facto face of anti-Trumpism when she flipped off President Donald Trump’s motorcade was fired when her employer learned about the middle finger gesture. Juli’s firing for flipping the bird to Trump highlights the double standards that exist in the workplace, as she described.

Juli Briskman had been a rather obscure figure in recent days. The 50-year-old mother of two worked in the marketing field for a government contractor in Virginia. By all accounts, her middle-class life was simple until something snapped inside and she found herself flipping off the president’s motorcade.

Suddenly, Juli’s life was upended when she faced the harsh reality of unemployment in the wake of flipping the middle finger at the commander-in-chief during a chance encounter. A White House photographer who was traveling with Trump’s motorcade as it departed Trump National Golf Course took the picture in question.

Locals had expressed irritation with the influx of traffic and attention to the neighborhood created by Donald Trump’s frequent visits; sources say the Oct. 28 stay marked the president’s 96th golfing excursion since he was sworn into office. Juli Briskman just happened to be riding her bicycle past the presidential motorcade as it exited the golf resort, and she suddenly got the urge to flip her middle finger at the convoy of vehicles, as she explained to Huffington Post over the weekend.

“He was passing by and my blood just started to boil. I’m thinking, DACA recipients are getting kicked out. He pulled ads for open enrollment in Obamacare. Only one-third of Puerto Rico has power. I’m thinking, he’s on the damn golf course again.”

Juli said something inside her struck a nerve. As a result of her angst with the president’s controversial policies and leadership style, she unthinkingly responded.

“I flipped off the motorcade a number of times,” Juli added.

The photographer posted the image online to a White House pool report. In short order, the image reached viral status and received its share of memes, political spins, and late-night fodder. Social media users called the cyclist “she-ro” and created the Twitter hashtag, #Her2020.

Days later, Juli Briskman was fired. As she explained, her employer, Akima LLC, a “holding company that supports a diverse portfolio of Federal and Commercial service providers,” according to its website, expressed displeasure about the circulating images of her flipping off Trump’s motorcade. As a consequence, a decision was made to fire Briskman.

Apparently, Juli changed her social media profile images to the viral bird-flipping picture after she received an outpouring of attention. Officials at Akima were not too pleased by her decision and fired Briskman, saying the attention could negatively impact their business.

“They said, ‘We’re separating from you.’ Basically, you cannot have ‘lewd’ or ‘obscene’ things in your social media. So they were calling flipping him off ‘obscene.'”

Juli highlighted a double standard that exists in the workplace. She recalled a time in the past when a male coworker at the same company allegedly posted vulgar comments on his social media page and changed his profile image to the company’s logo. Instead of firing him for calling an unnamed person, “a f**cking Libtard a**hole” on his Facebook page, he was only reprimanded when he complied with orders to remove the offensive language.

Briskman doesn’t see the difference in the severity of his offense compared to hers and thinks the male colleague — like her — should have been fired.

“How is that any less ‘obscene’ than me flipping off the president?” she questioned. “How is that fair?”

Twitter expressed its anger over the cyclist’s termination.

With Juli Briskman fired, she is trying to move on. Currently, she’s searching for another job to feed her family.

Despite her termination from flipping off Trump’s motorcade, Juli is enjoying the attention. She is focusing her efforts on putting the pivotal moment to good use. As a registered Democrat, Juli is in search of employment with Planned Parenthood and PETA, two advocacy groups she supports.

“In some ways, I’m doing better than ever. I’m angry about where our country is right now. I am appalled. This was an opportunity for me to say something.”

Should Juli Briskman have been fired for flipping the middle finger at President Trump?

[Featured Image by Jim Lo Scalzo-Pool/Getty Images]

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